A conventional horizontal bar mainly includes two simple uprights with a top bar transversely extended between upper ends of the two uprights. A user may grip at the top bar to do different motions, such as pulling up, swinging to and fro, etc. To ensure that the horizontal bar has sufficient structural strength and stability for use, the two uprights are normally buried into the ground by a proper depth and the top bar is welded to the uprights. A horizontal bar with the above-described fixed structure is more suitable for erecting and using outdoors and could not be easily moved according to actual need.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,394,932 granted to the same inventor of the present invention discloses a sectional horizontal bar that could be advantageously disassembled for relocation and may function not only as a horizontal bar, but also a parallel bar. The horizontal bar disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,394,932 mainly includes two side supports, two curved tubes, two top carriers, and a top bar. Each of the two side supports includes two vertically paralleled and spaced posts, which are connected at a middle portion to each other by a middle crossbar. The side support is also provided at upper and lower portions with pivotally turnable upper and lower curved braces, respectively, at an upper end with upward projected receiving holes, and at a lower end with forward and rearward projected receiving holes. Each of the two curved tubes has two reduced ends to form two insertion heads for inserting into the receiving holes at the lower ends of the two side supports, so that the two curved tubes are connected to the bottom of the side supports to separately extend from a front and a rear side thereof and therefore increase a contact area between the horizontal bar and a floor or the ground on which the horizontal bar is positioned. Each of the two top carriers is formed from two bars having a joined upper end and two parted lower ends. The parted lower ends of the top carriers are reduced to provide insertion heads for inserting into the upward projected receiving holes at the upper ends of the side supports, and the joined upper ends of the two top carriers are provided with two receiving holes for receiving and locating two outer ends of the top bar. Two metal rings are mounted around a middle portion of the top bar for connecting a handgrip thereto. When the upper and the lower curved braces provided on the two side supports are pivotally turned outward at the same time, a user may grip at the handgrip below the top bar to do horizontal bar exercises. And, when the upper and the lower curved braces provided on the two side supports are pivotally turned inward at the same time, a user may grip at the two upper braces between the two side supports to do parallel bar exercises.
The sectional horizontal bar disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,394,932 includes complicated parts and components. To assemble the whole horizontal bar for use, an outer sleeve is first put around the handgrip and two metal rings are mounted to two outer ends of the handgrip for the handgrip to connect to the top bar via the metal rings that are mounted near two outer ends of the top bar, and then, the top bar is screwed to the top of the two side supports. The numerous complicated parts and components disadvantageously result in troublesome and time-consuming assembling and disassembling of the horizontal bar.
It is therefore an object of the invention to develop an improved sectional horizontal bar to overcome the above-mentioned problems.